The Centro Diagnostico Italiano in Milan is the first diagnostic centre in Italy to offer MaterniT21 Plus, a new non-invasive genetic test which, using a simple sample of blood from the mother and without exposing the fetus to any risk, can detect the most common trisomies (Down’s syndrome, Edwards syndrome, Patau syndrome), anomalies in the number of sex chromosomes and the child’s gender. Compared with other tests used today, the CDI procedure is the only valid test for more than two fetuses: this makes it particularly suitable for pregnancies resulting from IVF treatment, which tends to lead to multiple births, where use of traditional invasive methods like amniocentesis and chorionic villus sampling may present risks.
The test is performed in the tenth week of pregnancy and provides a result in ten days. It offers a 99.1% probability of detecting the presence of trisomy 21 (Down’s Syndrome), 99.9% for trisomy 18 (Edwards Syndrome) and 91.7% for trisomy 13 (Patau Syndrome), today the most difficult abnormality to detect. The test also reveals anomalies in the number of sex chromosomes, associated with Klinefelter, Jacob’s, Turner and Triple X syndromes, pathologies that occur relatively frequently and are not linked to older mothers.
The test has been approved by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists Committee on Genetics and by the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine Publications Committee.
